Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British and American novelist known for blending magic realism and historical fiction. His work explores the relationships between Eastern and Western civilizations, often focusing on the Indian subcontinent. He is celebrated for his second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), which won the Booker Prize and was twice recognized as the best novel among all Booker Prize winners on the 25th and 40th anniversaries.
In 2008, Salman Rushdie was ranked in the top 50 greatest writers list since 1945 by The Times.
On June 19, 1947, Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay, British India, into a Kashmiri Muslim family. His parents were Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a lawyer-turned-businessman, and Negin Bhatt, a teacher.
In 1964, Salman Rushdie moved to England to attend Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire.
In 1975, Salman Rushdie's debut novel, the science fiction tale Grimus, was published but generally ignored.
In 1976, Salman Rushdie married Clarissa Luard, literature officer of the Arts Council of England.
In 1977, Roman Polanski was charged for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl, which led to Salman Rushdie signing a petition in 2009 in support of Polanski.
In 1979, Salman Rushdie and Clarissa Luard had a son, Zafar.
In 1981, Salman Rushdie published his novel Midnight's Children, which brought him widespread recognition.
In 1981, Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize.
In 1981, Salman Rushdie's work, "Midnight's Children", was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Also in 1981, he was awarded the Booker Prize.
Until 1982, Rushdie was a copywriter for the Ayer Barker advertising agency, where he wrote the line "That'll do nicely" for American Express. He then became a full-time writer.
In 1983, Salman Rushdie published Shame, a novel depicting the political turmoil in Pakistan. The characters were based on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
In 1983, Salman Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
In 1983, Salman Rushdie's novel "Shame" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
In 1987, Salman Rushdie wrote a non-fiction book about Nicaragua called The Jaguar Smile, based on his experiences and research at the scene of Sandinista political experiments.
In 1987, Salman Rushdie's marriage to Clarissa Luard ended in divorce.
In September 1988, "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie was published by Viking Penguin Publishing, causing immediate controversy in the Islamic world.
In 1988, Salman Rushdie married American novelist Marianne Wiggins.
In 1988, Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, was published, leading to controversy. Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death due to the book's perceived irreverent depiction of Muhammad.
In 1988, Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
On 22 January 1989, in response to the protests, Salman Rushdie published a column in The Observer that called Muhammad "one of the great geniuses of world history," but noted that Islamic doctrine holds Muhammad to be human, and in no way perfect.
On 14 February 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed a fatwa on Radio Tehran ordering Salman Rushdie's execution for writing "The Satanic Verses," which was deemed blasphemous against Islam.
On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy and the fatwa.
On 3 August 1989, Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh, using an alias, was killed in a London hotel when a book bomb he was priming exploded prematurely. The Lebanese group, the Organization of the Mujahidin of Islam, claimed he died preparing an attack "on the apostate Rushdie."
In 1989, Christopher Hitchens stated that Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa was "everything I hated versus everything I loved" and defended Salman Rushdie.
In 1989, The New York Times published "Words For Salman Rushdie", featuring 28 distinguished writers born in 21 countries expressing solidarity.
In 1989, in an interview following the fatwa, Rushdie said that he was in a sense a lapsed Muslim, though "shaped by Muslim culture more than any other," and a student of Islam. In another interview the same year, he said, "My point of view is that of a secular human being. I do not believe in supernatural entities, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu."
In December 1990, Rushdie issued a statement reaffirming his Muslim faith, distancing himself from statements made by characters in Satanic Verses. He also opposed the release of the paperback edition of the novel.
In 1990, Salman Rushdie published Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a story about the magic of storytelling and a defense of the power of stories over silence, written in the shadow of the fatwa.
In 1990, Salman Rushdie reviewed Thomas Pynchon's Vineland in The New York Times and met the author for dinner.
In 1990, a Pakistani film entitled International Gorillay (International Guerillas) was released that depicted Rushdie as a villain plotting to cause the downfall of Pakistan. The British Board of Film Classification refused to allow it a certificate but was later permitted by Rushdie.
In 1991 an Italian translator of The Satanic Verses was stabbed but survived. Days later Hitoshi Igarashi, its Japanese translator, was stabbed to death.
In 1991, Salman Rushdie gave an address at Columbia University to mark the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, from which Ralston College adopted its motto.
Later, in 1992, Rushdie cited the release of the statement as perhaps his lowest point, regretting its language, which he said he had not written.
On 11 August 1993, Salman Rushdie made a public appearance at London's Wembley Stadium during a concert by U2, despite the danger posed by the fatwa.
In 1993, Midnight's Children won the Best of the Bookers special prize.
In 1993, Salman Rushdie and Marianne Wiggins divorced.
In 1993, a collection titled "For Rushdie" featured 100 writers and intellectuals from the Muslim world expressing solidarity with Salman Rushdie.
In 1994, Salman Rushdie published East, West, a collection of short stories.
In 1995, Salman Rushdie's novel "The Moor's Last Sigh" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
In 1995, Salman Rushdie's novel The Moor's Last Sigh, a family saga spanning 100 years of India's history, won the Whitbread Award.
In February 1997, Ayatollah Hasan Sane'i, leader of the Fifteenth of Khordad Foundation, reported that the blood money offered by the foundation for the assassination of Rushdie would be increased from $2 million to $2.5 million. A semi-official religious foundation in Iran also increased the reward it had offered for the killing of Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
In 1997, Salman Rushdie married British editor and author Elizabeth West. They had a son, Milan, born in 1997.
In September 1998, as a precondition to restoring diplomatic relations with the UK, the Iranian government, then headed by Mohammad Khatami, publicly committed to "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie."
In 1998, Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami proclaimed the fatwa "finished"; but it has never been officially lifted, and in fact has been reiterated several times by Ali Khamenei and other religious officials.
In 1999, Rushdie supported the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
In 1999, Salman Rushdie first met Padma Lakshmi, who was 28 years old at the time.
In 1999, Salman Rushdie had an operation to correct ptosis, a condition causing drooping of the upper eyelid, which made it difficult for him to open his eyes.
In 1999, Salman Rushdie published The Ground Beneath Her Feet, a novel based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, casting them as rock stars, and including original song lyrics.
In 1999, Salman Rushdie was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France.
Since 2000, Salman Rushdie has lived in the United States, mostly near Union Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City.
In 2001, Rushdie was supportive of the US-led campaign to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In 2001, Salman Rushdie published Fury, a novel set mainly in New York, deviating from his previous sprawling narrative style.
In 2002, Salman Rushdie published his non-fiction collection Step Across This Line, professing his admiration for authors like Italo Calvino and Thomas Pynchon.
Between 2003 and 2020, Salman Rushdie wrote essays for his book 'Languages of Truth'.
In 2003, Rushdie was a vocal critic of the war in Iraq, stating that while there was a "case to be made for the removal of Saddam Hussein", US unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable.
In 2004, Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West ended their relationship after a miscarriage and later divorced.
In 2004, Salman Rushdie became the President of PEN American Center, a position he held until 2006.
In 2004, shortly after his third divorce, Salman Rushdie married Padma Lakshmi.
In mid-August 2005, Rushdie called for a reform in Islam in a guest opinion piece printed in The Washington Post and The Times.
In November 2005, Salman Rushdie contributed an essay to "Free Expression Is No Offence", a collection of essays published by Penguin, where he wrote about his opposition to the British government's introduction of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act.
In 2005, Deepa Mehta's film "Water" faced violent protests. Salman Rushdie interviewed Mehta about the film in 2006.
In 2005, Salman Rushdie published Shalimar the Clown, a story about love and betrayal set in Kashmir and Los Angeles, which was hailed as a return to form.
In 2005, Salman Rushdie's novel, "Shalimar the Clown" received the prestigious Hutch Crossword Book Award.
In early 2005, Khomeini's fatwa was reaffirmed by Iran's current leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards declared that the death sentence on him is still valid in 2005.
In March 2006, following the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Salman Rushdie signed the manifesto Together Facing the New Totalitarianism, which warned of the dangers of religious extremism. The manifesto was published in Charlie Hebdo in March 2006.
On 12 May 2006, Salman Rushdie was a guest host on "The Charlie Rose Show", where he interviewed Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta.
During the 2006 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that if the Imam Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie had been carried out, the insults against Prophet Mohammed would not have occurred.
In 2006, Rushdie described his view on moral and cultural relativism in an interview with Point of Inquiry.
In 2006, Rushdie stated that he supported comments by Jack Straw, who criticized the wearing of the niqab. Rushdie stated that his three sisters would never wear the veil.
In 2006, in an interview about his novel Shalimar the Clown, Rushdie lamented the division of Kashmir into zones of Indian and Pakistani administration.
In a 2006 interview with PBS, Rushdie called himself a "hardline atheist".
Salman Rushdie's tenure as President of PEN American Center ended in 2006, having started in 2004.
In January 2007, Padma Lakshmi asked for a divorce from Salman Rushdie, after which the couple filed it in July of that year.
On 16 June 2007, Rushdie was knighted for services to literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours. The knighthood drew protests from many Muslim-majority nations.
In 2007, Salman Rushdie began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he has also deposited his archives.
In 2007, Salman Rushdie was knighted for his services to literature.
In 2007, Salman Rushdie's novel "Shalimar the Clown" was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.
In May 2008, Salman Rushdie was elected as a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
On 26 August 2008, Rushdie received an apology at the High Court in London from Ron Evans, his co-author and their publisher, regarding Evans' planned book release.
In September 2008, Salman Rushdie appeared as a panellist on the HBO programme "Real Time with Bill Maher".
In 2008, Midnight's Children won the Booker of Bookers special prize.
In 2008, Salman Rushdie published The Enchantress of Florence, a novel focusing on the past and exploring a European's visit to Akbar's court.
In 2008, The Times ranked Salman Rushdie 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
In March 2009, Salman Rushdie appeared as a panellist on the HBO programme "Real Time with Bill Maher".
In 2009, Salman Rushdie signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland.
In 2009, actress Pia Glenn criticized Salman Rushdie as "cowardly, dysfunctional, and immature" after he ended their relationship via email.
In September 2010, production began on the cinematic adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel "Midnight's Children", which he co-wrote with director Deepa Mehta.
In November 2010, Salman Rushdie became a founding patron of Ralston College, a new liberal arts college.
In November 2010, Salman Rushdie's Luka and the Fire of Life, a sequel to Haroun and the Sea of Stories, was published to critical acclaim.
In 2010, Anwar al-Awlaki published an Al-Qaeda hit list in Inspire magazine, including Rushdie along with other figures claimed to have insulted Islam.
In 2010, U2 bassist Adam Clayton recalled that after his public appearance at their Wembley concert in 1993, Salman Rushdie was a regular visitor backstage.
In June 2011, Salman Rushdie announced that he had written the first draft of a script for a new television series called "The Next People" for Showtime.
In January 2012, Rushdie cancelled his appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, due to a possible threat to his life. He later indicated that state police agencies had lied to keep him away.
In March 2012, a proposed video link session between Rushdie and the Jaipur Literature Festival was cancelled after government pressure. However, Rushdie returned to India to address a conference in New Delhi on 16 March 2012.
In July 2012, Salman Rushdie blamed a shooting at a Colorado cinema on the American right to keep and bear arms, expressing his support for gun control.
In September 2012, Salman Rushdie published his memoir, Joseph Anton: A Memoir.
On 18 September 2012, Rushdie's memoir of his years in hiding, Joseph Anton, was released. "Joseph Anton" was Rushdie's secret alias during the height of the controversy.
In 2012, Rushdie was critical of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan after Khan took personal jabs at him in an interview.
In 2012, Salman Rushdie embraced Booktrack by publishing his short story "In the South" on the platform, making him one of the first major authors to do so.
In 2012, Salman Rushdie published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, recounting his life following the controversy surrounding The Satanic Verses.
In 2012, the film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel "Midnight's Children" was released.
In 2014, Salman Rushdie taught a seminar on British Literature and served as the 2015 keynote speaker.
In September 2015, Salman Rushdie joined the New York University Journalism Faculty as a Distinguished Writer in Residence.
In November 2015, former Indian minister P. Chidambaram acknowledged that banning The Satanic Verses was wrong.
In 2015 Rushdie stated that there are the larger stories, the grand narratives that we live in, which are things like nation, and family, and clan, and so on. Those stories are considered to be treated reverentially. His support of feminism can also be seen in a 2015 interview with New York magazine's The Cut.
In 2015, Salman Rushdie was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University.
In 2015, Salman Rushdie's Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, a modern take on the One Thousand and One Nights, was published.
In February 2016, more money was added to the bounty for the killing of Salman Rushdie.
In 2016, Salman Rushdie acquired American citizenship and voted for Hillary Clinton in that year's election.
In 2017, Salman Rushdie appeared as himself in episode 3 of season 9 of "Curb Your Enthusiasm", sharing scenes with Larry David.
In 2017, Salman Rushdie's satirical novel The Golden House, set in contemporary America, was published.
In August 2019, Salman Rushdie criticized the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, calling it an atrocity.
In 2019, Salman Rushdie's Quichotte, a modern retelling of Don Quixote, was published.
In 2019, Salman Rushdie's novel "Quichotte" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
In July 2020, Salman Rushdie was among the 153 signers of the "Harper's Letter", also known as "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate", which expressed concern over the constriction of free exchange of information and ideas.
Between 2003 and 2020, Salman Rushdie wrote essays for his book 'Languages of Truth'.
In 2021, Salman Rushdie married American poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths.
In 2021, Salman Rushdie's Languages of Truth, a collection of essays written between 2003 and 2020, was published.
On 12 August 2022, while about to start a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, Rushdie was attacked by a man who rushed onto the stage and stabbed him repeatedly. He was airlifted to UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery.
On 23 October 2022, Wylie reported that Rushdie had lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand but survived the murder attempt.
In 2022, Rushdie was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for services to literature.
In 2022, Salman Rushdie was attacked and severely injured as he was about to give a public lecture in New York.
In 2022, Salman Rushdie was stabbed at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, resulting in the loss of his right eye and damage to his liver and hands.
In February 2023, Salman Rushdie's fifteenth novel, Victory City, was published. It was his first released work after being attacked in 2022.
In April 2023, Salman Rushdie was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
In January 2024, the jury selection for the trial was originally scheduled to begin on 8 January 2024. However, Matar's lawyer successfully petitioned to delay the trial, arguing that they are entitled to see the memoir and any related materials before Matar stands trial, as the documents constitute evidence.
In April 2024, Salman Rushdie's autobiographical book Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, about the 2022 attack and his recovery, was published and was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
In May 2024, Rushdie argued that if a Palestinian state ever came into being, it would resemble a "Taliban-like state" and become a client state of Iran. He voiced his puzzlement regarding the current support of progressive students for what he described as a "fascist terrorist group".
In February 2025, the attacker, Hadi Matar, was found guilty of attempted murder and assault in connection with the stabbing.
In May 2025, Hadi Matar was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the attack on Salman Rushdie.
In late 2025, The Eleventh Hour, a collection of five stories by Salman Rushdie, was released.
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